The IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence has released "Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions," or MRAID, for public comment. The paper establishes a common API for mobile rich media advertisements, as well as introducing a framework of principles and guidelines with an eye to consistency in this space.
One reason that in-app ads have not gained the traction the industry had expected, IAB maintains, is the many disparate APIs from numerous rich media vendors most of which are incompatible. The upshot is that advertisers are forced re-write the programming behind their ad creative several times for a single campaign.
Under IAB's draft MRAID guidelines, a mobile app that is "MRAID compliant," will be able to read and display ads developed using the MRAID instruction specification. The public comment period for MRAID will run through September 30, 2011. After that, the MRAID working group will evaluate the comments received, make any needed changes to the draft MRAID spec, and release final version of MRAID 1.0.
To receive a copy of the public comment version, go here.
Huge App Inventory Coming
Standardization will be welcome as mobile apps continue to proliferate - and possibly overtake online display ad spending. Flurry just released statistics suggesting that this is the direction the industry is headed. It found that the U.S. mobile app inventory will absorb the equivalent of the entire U.S. internet display advertising spend by the end of this year.
Mobile app inventory, it said, has grown from less than $500 million in January to close to $1 billion. By the end of 2012, the U.S. mobile app inventory will reach $4.5 billion, which is triple the expected $1.5 billion that will represent online display ad spending.
Apple Hasn't Cracked the Code
Another reason for providers to reach consensus on standards in this space is Apple’s slipping grasp on the in-app ad market. A year ago it was seen as all but invincible, but reports suggest that its iAd mobile advertising platform hasn’t been as successful as it originally expected. Bloomberg recently reported that Apple cut these rates by as much as 70% as several of its clients are turning to rival ad platforms in order to reach a wider range of devices.
